Atlantic City Weekly

Believe it or not, I walked on a Boardwalk that took me back to my early childhood, except for the fact that there were no people walking in either direction. The storefronts on this boardwalk were of Atlantic City’s 1920 and ’30s era. The stores were open and even had merchandise within them. One of them blew me away. The sign on the window said, “Incubators.”

Unfortunately, many of you reading this have no conception of an incubator store. It is a store that had incubators containing live, premature and newly born children, just days old. The sign in the window lured me into the store and I opened the door. Upon entering, I had a flashback of myself walking into that store when I was eight years old. There were incubators lined up in a U-shape with live babies in them. I saw myself staring at these newborn children and trying to get their attention. As I walked by each of the enclosed incubators and saw the children comfortably lying there, I marveled at how small they were. There were nurses on duty to provide the utmost medical care necessary to take care of them.

As a child, I marveled at the idea that I was looking at children that had been born just a few days before and were obviously brought to the incubator store to receive expert attention. Those of us who walked around and watched the children lying there wondered why they were there. A simple reason was that at the end of your walk around the incubators there was a bucket with a sign asking for contributions for the upkeep of the children. Young as I was and having little money, I reached into my pocket and took out the five pennies for candy money that my mother had given me, and put it in the bucket. Just about everyone who walked through made a contribution. How could you not after seeing these children? Whose children were they? I never knew, and when the nurses were asked they declined to respond.

How come I remembered seeing all this some 75 years later? I never forgot the experience of looking at the beautiful newborn children. Of course, there would not be an incubator baby store on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City today. However, it was on the Boardwalk in Atlantic City, across from the Million Dollar Pier and near Arkansas Avenue, in the 1920s and ’30s.

The Boardwalk I strolled on last Thursday in Brooklyn, N.Y., was not a mythical one. It was a 300-foot, true facsimile of the Atlantic City Boardwalk during that era. It was created as a part of the scenery one will see in September when HBO presents a 12-week series based on Nelson Johnson’s book Boardwalk Empire. From all reports that I have heard, it is destined to be the big hit of the 2010 television season. The series is based on a portion of the life of Enoch “Nucky” Johnson, who was the “benevolent dictator” of Atlantic City for 30 years. It begins in the era of Prohibition. However, there were speakeasies, otherwise known as clandestine bars, in just about every city in the country. Most fondly remembered are those with a closed door with a peephole. To gain access you would knock on the door and a bouncer could see who wished entrance to their establishment. If he knew you the door opened, if not it stayed closed. It was a time that saw the beginning of the mafia. It is alleged that Nucky helped to bring the leaders of the varied mobs together to a meeting in Atlantic City to get them to work together rather than kill each other. By the way, if you are interested in the exciting history of Atlantic City and its three benevolent dictators who had control of every facet of the city — and in many instances the state of New Jersey and in one instance the election of a president — I suggest you read Boardwalk Empire.

I not only walked along the Boardwalk, I also had the privilege of visiting Nucky Johnson’s replicated suite on the eighth floor of the Ritz Hotel. The producers of the HBO series put together an exact replica of the magnificent splendor of what was known as Nucky’s playroom. Every facet one can imagine from that era was evidenced in those rooms. I had not been privileged to have the pleasure of seeing any of the filming, but the few folks I spoke to who have seen it feel that this will be a great replacement for The Sopranos — the HBO series that ended in 2007. If it goes as well as anticipated, HBO will begin work on the second season in the fall.

What does all this have to do with Atlantic City? In my opinion, it will bring thousands of people who want to see the Atlantic City of the Boardwalk Empire series. Unfortunately, when they come they will see the Atlantic City of 2010, not the A.C. of yore. The question that keeps running through my mind is: What can we do to make the visitors have an experience of that era while visiting modern-day Atlantic City? One thought is to have some of the bars in town go into a speakeasy mode. Have a door with a peephole and a bouncer who will open it when they are shown everyone’s calling card — a dollar bill. Have the waiters in white shirts with the garters holding up their sleeves and wearing a straw hat. Have the waitresses wear the flapper costumes and serve their beverages in teacups, as they were at that time. Play the music of that era and teach everyone to dance the Charleston. Atlantic City must become the wild, exciting town that it was in the era of Nucky Johnson, minus the lawlessness that was prevalent then.

I believe this is a gift to improve the business of Atlantic City. We should say “thank you” to Nelson Johnson for writing this wonderful book on the history of Atlantic City; the people who had the foresight and talent to produce this series; HBO for its cast, directors and production crew; and the locals who aided in the production by providing information on what Atlantic City was like in the days of Boardwalk Empire.

Pinky’s Corner airs Monday through Friday from 4 to 6pm on News Talk WOND-AM 1400. His TV show, WMGM Presents Pinky, airs Saturday at 7:30pm on TV40. Pinky’s e-mail address is: pinky@acweekly.com.